WASHINGTON: The Iran-backed Houthi militia launched two anti-ship ballistic missiles at a US-owned tanker ship late on Thursday (Jan 18) that hit the water close to the vessel however precipitated no accidents or harm, the US navy mentioned.
The incident, the newest amid rising tensions within the Purple Sea which have disrupted world commerce and raised fears of provide bottlenecks, passed off round 9pm in Yemen (Friday, 2am, Singapore time), in accordance with a US Central Command publish on X, previously known as Twitter.
The Houthis, who management most of Yemen, earlier on Thursday claimed duty for the assault, saying they focused the ship Chem Ranger with naval missiles that precipitated “direct hits”.
Monitoring service TankerTrackers.com mentioned on social media that the “pretty small chemical tanker left the Purple Sea port of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia for Kuwait, however her AIS (automated identification system) went offline on (Tuesday) earlier than continuing south previous Yemen”.
The Houthis say their assaults are in solidarity with Palestinians below assault from Israel in Gaza.
Since final week, america has launched strikes on Houthi targets in Yemen, and this week returned the militia to a listing of “terrorist” teams. President Joe Biden instructed reporters on Thursday that air strikes would proceed even when they might not be halting the Houthi assaults.
